Here at NC Towers we do like to keep you up to date on what’s happening now in Ireland’s arts. We don’t always succeed, but job/time permitting, we do our best.
However, just because a band isn’t new or releasing records anymore, doesn’t mean one should stop listening to what they created, like when I produced my first local mixtape a couple years back, some enjoyed hearing a tune from defunct P45 probably more than the rest of the then current releases (although some remarked on the joy of hearing Duke Special mashed with a disco house track).
This is very much the ethos of The Swedish Nurse, a reprisal of a Belfast zine printed back in 1990/1991 with it’s coverage of early demos/rehearsals from Irish bands like Therapy?, Pet Lamb and DFA. Which got me thinking about zines; I’m not quite sure what it is about them, but their crud cheap paper production, their inclusions of badly cut out and photocopied images, reviews and stories written from the fan’s perspective (warts and all) sparing none of the gory details always made it a more satisfying read than the glossy, photo heavy (and expensive) publications that fill the newsagent shelves today. Don’t you agree?
Last time I visited the United States was February 2006 and I picked up a few from indie music shops, like The Noise (rock around Boston) and Stubble with it’s ingenious tagline “exposing you to the new growth in music today“. I have to admit, I enjoy digging them out now and again and having a read over them, mesmerized at their promotion of gawd-awful named EPs like The Lost Dick Urine Tapes or their blending of scenes and activities like Heckler’s snowboarding, skate and punk, revealing more about a scene than just CDs and gigs; it’s a real community of head-the-balls and music enthusiasts!
So, I hypothesis this: Are bloggers now what the zine editors (I use that term loosely) once were? Share your thoughts kind people, you’ve read this far after all. And don’t forget to check out some of Martin’s thoughts and recordings of Irish bands on his blog.
Words by Eddie Mullan
2 responses so far ↓
Chris Sparks Fly // February 9, 2008 at 8:25 am
Thats a bit of a no brainer don’t you think? Being a bit of a sci-fi nerd in my teens around the early nineties I dipped into the world of fanzines for a while. Almost to a man, every single one of the zines I’d heard of moved online by 1998.
As far a yokel music goes I’ve seen a couple of attempts at old style ‘zines pop up and promptly vanish again. Why bother going to the hassle of producing and distributing a real world mag when doing it online looks better, is easier to produce and reaches more people?
Zines have always been the realm of the enthusiastic amateaur and blogs have definately taken their place in that respect. The one difference with having a blog is that it’s so easy that everyone is doing it, so it’s difficult to sperate the wheat from the chaff.
Quite like local music itself now that I come to think of it.
Ed // February 11, 2008 at 3:23 pm
There’s a sense of pride that comes with creating something physical, almost like the online mag could be wiped out at any second.
Some bloggers certainly take a huge amount of pride in the aesthetic design of their blogs but its the same argument of mp3 vs Vinyl, its just a trade-off that most of us will have to make.
I would certainly hope we help separate the bangers from the mash in Ireland’s music scene!